Other companies with a dog in this fight are content delivery networks (CDNs), internet businesses whose networks are pivotal in streaming shows such as Game of Thrones or even the Six Nations to consumers’ devices. When asked if CDNs such as Akamai, Cloudflare or Lumen Technologies could be caught in his industry’s plans, one mobile network engineering executive pauses.
“That’s a tricky question,” he eventually says. “But if you think about their business model, they are about taking the pain away for large content providers to distribute the content globally, right? And often they charge based on volume.” In his off-the-cuff answer, one of the CDNs’ business models is a potential solution for cash-hungry telcos.
Tempers have frayed in Britain over these plans. Last winter’s Ofcom consultation saw ITV branding telcos’ proposals as “akin to gas companies seeking to charge hob manufacturers for the increased demand for gas that they create”.
This colorful description chimes with the tech companies. Google’s top European executive Matt Brittin said: “All this [streaming and web traffic] amounts to an economic surplus which is distributed to all the internet users and businesses across Europe,” asserting that Google activity generates “€420bn a year in value” for Britons and EU citizens alike.
“Google traffic” includes small and medium businesses, he points out: many Android app developers distribute their programs through Google’s Play Store. The same holds true for Apple’s App Store.
“Introducing a ‘sender pays’ principle is not a new idea,” continues Brittin, “and would upend many of the principles of the open internet.”
One of Big Tech’s Brussels lobby groups, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, is leading the charge against the plans on this side of the Atlantic on behalf of Big Tech. Amazon is one of its members, together with Apple, Facebook, Google and others.
Vice president Christian Borggreen says: “Operators are already being paid by their customers. It now seems like telcos want to double-dip in an attempt to make online content and service providers pay for internet traffic in spite of Europe’s long standing commitment to net neutrality.”
Those concerns were echoed by Adrian Kennard, director of small British internet service provider Andrews & Arnold. Far from seeing a windfall from the big operators’ plans if they become reality, Kennard worries that altnets – small and micro-scale operators – such as his will find themselves tied up in bureaucracy and at the mercy of middlemen.
“People are watching streaming TV all the time anyway,” he shrugs. “If they happen to be watching some streaming sports event instead of watching some rerun of the X Files, it really doesn’t make a huge difference to us in terms of bandwidth anymore.”
For now Ofcom is resting on its laurels, perhaps preoccupied as it prepares to assume its upcoming Online Safety Bill powers. So far in the UK, there are no firm plans to pass new laws forcing streaming providers to pay telecoms companies for the privilege of sending their traffic to consumers.
But if the telcos get their way, you might see a few more pounds added to your favorite streaming site’s subscriptions.
.